But, some of Bernanke’s colleagues in the rarified world of central banking are coming out of the woodwork to defend the Fed chairman.

Former European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said in an interview with CNBC that Bernanke was, like Spike Lee, doing the right thing.

“I think that it was appropriate for Ben Bernanke to say, ‘Well, this will not last forever’…but he remained very conditional in his own explanation, so I think it was very well done. It was carefully crafted. That you have an over-reaction was something that we have to live with,” Trichet said. “It tells you something about the way markets are looking at things. But I am confident, that things will re-stabilize.”

Bank of England Gov. Mervyn King, who is about to retire, told the U.K. parliament that the market has misinterpreted Bernanke.

“I think people have rather jumped the gun thinking this means an imminent return to normal levels of interest rates. It doesn’t,” he said, according to the Guardian. “Until markets see in place policies to bring about that return to normal economic conditions, there is no prospect for sustainable recovery and without that prospect for sustainable recovery, markets understand that it will not be sensible to return interest rates to normal levels.”

It’s worth noting the track record of those endorsing Bernanke. When Trichet retired in October 2011, the prospect of a euro-zone break-up was very much in the air, so much so that a fund manager took out full-page ads saying “farewell, you certainly won’t be missed!” As for King, the U.K. has seen one of the weakest recoveries of all industrialized countries since the recession, while simultaneously seeing above-target inflation.